Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Sinn Féin has been calling for a Dáil debate on the United Nations reform proposals since they were first published last December. Squeezing in a token one hour debate on the final day of session on the last possible opportunity before the UN summit is a disgraceful way to treat the vital and highly complex issue of UN reform. I cannot possibly deal adequately with it in the five minutes available to my party.

Sinn Féin would support an early recall of the Dáil in advance of the September summit to debate this issue with the thoroughness and seriousness it deserves, ideally allocating a separate debate for each of the four major sections of reform proposals and an overall debate to conclude with a Dáil resolution.

My party has been calling for comprehensive and progressive reform of the United Nations for many years. We therefore welcome the new focus on this profound challenge and await the outcome of the historic September summit with great interest. While I commend the key role being played by the Minister for Foreign Affairs in promoting the Annan reform package and genuinely wish him well, I regret that the Government has not involved the people more. Essentially it has bypassed Parliament and the people.

The United Nations has made a massive contribution to catalysing a basic international consensus around decolonisation, economic development, human rights, women's rights, anti-racism, environmental protection and social and economic rights. It has created a constructive alternative to the competing military alliances of the past. Through the UN Charter, the universal declaration of human rights and other international instruments and conventions, it has changed the international landscape for the better and set rights' benchmarks which we use on a daily basis in our work. While it has been deliberately emaciated by opponents of the checks it imposes on absolute power, for all its flaws the UN system still offers the best possible hope of international peace and justice available to the peoples and nations of the earth. Sinn Féin is genuinely committed to UN primacy as the backbone of Ireland's international relations policy and our own policy of positive neutrality in action.

Sinn Féin must evaluate the UN Secretary General's proposals and the outcomes of the September summit against what we believe are priorities for reform, namely, democratisation and capacity building. Specifically, will they democratise the UN Security Council by eliminating the veto and permanent membership and establishing a regionally representative democratic executive? Will they significantly increase the UN's ability to lead peacekeeping operations and, most importantly, to prevent genocide and stop other crimes against humanity where the individual state concerned is unable or unwilling to do this? Will they prevent abuse of state power through unilateral pre-emptive action, such as we have most recently seen in the invasion and occupation of Iraq? Will they strengthen the ability to monitor and enforce human rights? Will they give more powers to the UN Economic and Social Council to manage global economic affairs equitably and in the interests of all? Critically, will they end the funding crisis that has plagued the UN for decades and provide more stable funding for capacity-building?

While Sinn Féin may not agree with every detail of the Annan proposals, there is much that is worthy of strong support and overall they represent a significant improvement on the status quo. Annan's plan is a commendable effort to learn from the shortcomings of the past 60 years and establish consensus on a plan for the new millennium.

As a republican internationalist I agree with the Secretary General that we, as peoples and nations, are united by moral imperatives and by objective interests. The UN is a toolbox but it is also a process. It is a forum for global co-operation through which human beings are inching away from global conflict and towards global unity, slowly, as these processes must always be if they are to endure. Above all, the UN is only what we make of it. Let us support in every way we can this opportunity for change. I reiterate my good wishes to the Minister in his role.

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